For our sixth DANCING Academic Conversation, we were delighted to welcome Professor Sacha Garben (College of Europe), who joined us online to discuss ‘Confronting the Competence Conundrum: Reflections on the Ultra Vires Challenge to the Minimum Wage Directive and its Meaning for the EU (Social) ‘Constitution’’.

Building on recent research, Professor Garben discussed the pending challenge to the EU Adequate Minimum Wage Directive, connecting the discussion to the broader ‘competence conundrum’ in the EU, which included reflections on (i) the EU’s foundational competence problem (the Kompetenz-Kompetenz conflict between the CJEU and several national courts), and (ii) the EU’s functional competence problem of what we may call ‘asymmetric conferral’ – namely that its competence to regulate in the social interest is subordinate to its economic competences.

Professor Sacha Garben is a Permanent Professor of EU Law at the Legal Studies Department of the College of Europe (Bruges Campus). She is moreover an official in the European Commission (legal officer, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), currently on leave to be at the College of Europe full time. Besides this, she is a replacement Judge at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.

Professor Garben obtained her PhD at the European University Institute in 2010, winning the Jacqueline Suter Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in European Law 2009 – 2011. In 2008, she spent a semester at Harvard Law School as a visiting scholar. She has since then worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union and at the London School of Economics. Professor Garben has published widely on EU Law and regularly contributes to EU Law handbooks, such as the Commentary on the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, edited by M. Kellerbauer, M. Klamert, and J. Tomkin), and The Law of the European Union (Kluwer Law International, 2018, edited by F. Ambtenbrin et al.). She is also the General Editor (together with L. Gormley) of the Oxford University Press Online Encyclopaedia of EU Law.

After her detailed and careful analysis of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive, Prof. Garben and the attendees engaged in a thought-provoking and inspiring conversation that touched upon several issues, including the future of the EU in terms of integration, social policies and overarching objectives. Particular emphasis was also given to the role that the Directive plays before the Court of Justice of the European Union and its links with the underlying principles of EU law.

This edition of the DANCING Academic Conversation series took place in blended format, and we were delighted to welcome many attendees both from Ireland and around Europe.

This event was supported by the Research Centre for European Law at the School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University.

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